Morning Mist
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: It was the first time they ever had a proper conversation, and yet both of them knew more about the other than they realised. Their encounter turns from a ghostly figure in the mist to the two of them sitting together on the top of the world and having a chat about each other. Miyako/Kouichi
1. Part 1

**A/N:** Written for the digimon_100 challenge, for the pairing: Kouichi/Miyako and prompt #035 – mist.

These "parts" are actually all separate oneshots, so they don't flow like chapters would and are missing scenes in between. I just didn't want to do the whole "this is a sequel to that" thing with a string of oneshots.

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**Morning Mist  
Part 1**

She saw him again.

He was standing on the bridge as he always did, leaning against the flimsy rails. It was daring of him, really, considering the drop below, but she'd gone up to see the view for herself and it was definitely worth the risk.

Though Hawkmon could easily catch her if she fell; she wondered who would catch him.

She'd, in fact, thought he was a ghost the first few times; he always managed to disappear when she got close. But then she saw him earlier, more closely, and realised she actually knew him. Or recognised him anyway.

She didn't wonder how she'd mistaken him for a ghost; he was quiet and unassuming, unlike Ken who was quiet and yet still stood out in the crowd, and the early morning mist only served to add to that effect.

She didn't chase him; he looked peaceful on the bridge, relaxed. Sometimes she'd go there after the fleeting image of him was gone, sometimes she'd just return to their campsite and the site of Daisuke making pancakes for everyone. The sight baffled her still, but she supposed he must have some culinary skills if his dream to open a noodle cart still stood.

Then one day she was early, and he had turned to look at her. He didn't show any surprise, though she hadn't been particularly loud in her arrival.

'Was I disturbing you?' she asked.

He shook his head, moving over a little so they could stand in the middle of the bridge together. Hawkmon jumped onto the rail by his hand, then stretched his wings and flew into the green and blue below.

'Too bad the trails don't stretch that far,' Miyako mused out loud, forgetting her company differed from her usual friends. 'No doubt it's as gorgeous down there as up here.' She pulled a pout. 'Lucky Hawkmon, always going without me.'

'It's not as beautiful when the sun's up,' the other inputted, leaning his head on the opposite shoulder so he could see both the scene and his companion without turning his head.

'The mist then.' It was chilly, but not overtly so, but it added to the mysterious air of the valley below. 'It makes you wonder how dangerous it is.' But it really didn't seem dangerous, and if Aquilamon – or Holsmon – could handle Siberia's winter she had no doubt he could handle this.

'You're planning to go then?' the boy asked her.

'Ack, don't start sounding like Hawkmon – ' she began, quite forgetting her company, before blushing. 'Whoops, sorry. Totally forgot who I was talking to.'

She didn't expect a reply, and didn't get one either. The silence settled upon them, punctured only by the sounds of birds far below.

'Would you climb that?' the other said suddenly.

'Huh?' Miyako looked to where the other was gesturing, seeing the small crevices that rolled down the cliff face, teasingly hidden by the mist. 'Now what are the chances one of those would be a loose stone I grab, dropping me into some cold abyss?'

Her voice was light; it wasn't all that dangerous after all, if Hawkmon was there as well. Not that she should really rely on him so much. And somehow the heights always exhilarated her; her palms were already calloused by all the abseiling she had done since she had arrived.

'Not too high,' the boy replied, and Miyako looked at him curiously. 'The birds seem to scrape away most of the loose ones.'

'Never thought you were a bird-watcher,' she commented. 'You normally have your nose in a book.'

'I'm not that bad.'

'No…I guess you're not,' Miyako allowed. 'It's more your head's in the clouds – though it is cute.' She added the last part hurriedly when the other turned to face her directly. 'Like a cat cute, and – I'm not helping my case, am I?'

The other had a hard time stifling his laughter, but he managed it, hiding the smile behind a hand. 'The view's better from the top; shall I take you up?'

'Take me up how?' Miyako asked suspiciously. 'You're not exactly the sporty type, Kimura-kun.'

He smiled – this time not hiding it – but said nothing.

'I could fly up with Hawkmon.'

'You could.'

Miyako scowled, albeit amused. He was teasing her; he was definitely teasing her. 'You know, most people tend to avoid dangling carrots in front of my face.'

'I'm not most people.'

'I'll say.' She snorted to herself. 'I've never seen you fazed by anything.'

'Then you're not looking close enough.' The answer came out quick, automatic.

Miyako stared at that; she couldn't help it. 'You didn't mean to say that, did you?'

'No.' There was a light pink blush on his cheeks, barely noticeable. 'But would that qualify as me being fazed?'

'Nope,' Miyako said brightly, 'but that blush would.'

A hand automatically came up to his cheek, and Miyako laughed. It really did look cute.

'I think I'll take you up on that offer after all,' she said, 'just so long as I don't go up blindfolded.'

'Wouldn't dream of it,' the other said after a brief pause, stepping away. After a moment's hesitation, he added: 'Call me Kouichi.'

'Huh?' Miyako blinked.

'My first name,' Kouichi said, though Miyako might've known that. She wasn't sure; it had never really come up before. 'You know too much about me for me to think of you anymore as a school-mate.'

'And you don't offer any girl to climb up mountains with you?'

'The circumstance hasn't really arisen before,' the other shrugged. 'But climbing is a different experience to flying.'

'And how exactly do you intend to climb from here?' Miyako put her hands on her hips, mock-glaring. 'Not diving off the bridge are you?'

'Exactly that.' The other grinned suddenly, pulling out what looked to be a digivice. Miyako blinked, and a lion was standing in the boy's place.

'You're one of –?' She shook her head. 'Wasn't expecting that.'

The lion knelt down. 'Climb on,' he said, his voice deeper, more gravely.

'You're being a lot more forward now that we're out of school.' But she swung a leg over the other's back all the same. She didn't think she knew as much of Kimura-kun – Kouichi – as he claimed, but she certainly knew how he looked out for his friends. 'Mind explaining how I wound up in your friend's book?'

'At the top.' He sounded amused still; perhaps she was being dense about the whole issue.

It didn't matter though. She was comfortably perched on his back, knees locked into place behind shoulder blades and hands firmly gripping the pistons. The jewels on the lion mane sparkled in the little bit of sun the mist allowed through, and she had to wonder what sort of sight she was about to be treated to.

'Next time, we'll go down to the floor on Holsmon,' she said.


	2. Part 2

**A/N:** Written for the digimon_100 challenge, for the pairing: Kouichi/Miyako and prompt #006 – orange. I'm only anticipating one more part, so hopefully my muses will stick to the plan this time round.

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**Morning Mist  
Part 2**

It was like watching the sunrise without the sky turning a multi-shade of orange and red. The wind was colder and the mist a swirling cloud of white, but still Miyako felt the need to tug her scarf away from her throat and swallow the brisk air.

Kouichi was sitting down on the ledge, the flush on his cheeks a little darker from the exertion. He was smiling though; Miyako hadn't seen him smile like that at school. Not that she saw him all that often, them being in different years and all. Though there was the library, and under the tree…

She stopped that train of though. 'I am not a stalker,' she said out loud.

Kouichi chuckled. Miyako sighed. 'I put my foot in my mouth again.' Her fringes flew across her face and she poked them back under the hat.

'You almost always admit it,' the other pointed out, seemingly more at ease at the top of the world. 'That's more than most people do.'

'You haven't been stalking me too, have you?' Miyako asked half-teasingly, running that sentence over in her head.

Kouichi laughed again, and for the life of her Miyako couldn't see what was so funny.

'I suppose we've just noticed each other more than we thought.' He was silent for a bit, thinking. 'You're at the chess club meetings sometimes, but I never see you play.'

'Ah, I'm just there to keep a friend company.' Miyako rubbed her hands together, fighting the urge to rub her hair instead. The wind was making enough of a mess with it, completely ignoring the hood as an obstacle. 'I can't seem to last more than four moves, even against Daisuke. He doesn't even know what the pieces do!'

The ire in her voice was evident.

'There's an easy way to avoid that.'

'So everyone tells me. Except no-one tells me what that way actually is.'

'It is much easier to explain with a chess board.' Kouichi closed his eyes, drawing one up in his mind. 'I'm guessing it's the classical four move checkmate: king's pawn forward – doesn't really matter whether it's one or two spaces – then king's side bishop or the queen to attack the opponent's king's bishop pawn, then the other one attacking, then queen takes the pawn and puts the king on checkmate.'

Miyako followed that, running through her memory of the pieces moving. 'That sounds about right,' she said. 'How'd you know?'

'Not much you can do in four moves really.' Kouichi opened his eyes again, leaning back on his palms. 'The easiest way is to just move that pawn. The one that gets taken; that entire strategy depends on it being an easy target.'

Miyako scrunched her face a little in thought. 'That's true,' she realised. 'How did I not notice that before?' It was a rhetorical question; she knew how. She just hadn't been looking past the middle of the board. 'Music's so much easier to manage; your eyes don't have to be on 64 squares at once.'

'And computers?' the other asked dryly.

'Computers are computers. No-body could go wrong with Koushirou as their teacher.' There was no way Kouichi could not know who Koushirou was: a revolutionary figure in their school, if nothing else about him was recalled. 'Chess on the other hand…I get the feeling those boys don't want the additional competition.' She crossed her hands, half from cold and half from ire. 'Honestly.'

Kouichi looked up at her but said nothing.

'But really…' They'd strayed completely off topic. 'You seem to know as much about me as I do about you.'

'It's something I didn't realise until there wasn't anybody else around.' Kouichi gave a bit of a small shrug, looking out to the hazy mountains and the shimmering low-cut sun. 'It's funny; I have a hard time remembering the name of my science partner.'

'Because of that accident a few years back?' Miyako paused, thinking that might have been a little tactless of her.

'It wasn't.' Kouichi was looking at her face again. 'It's public knowledge anyway.'

'It's written all over my face, isn't it?' Miyako rubbed her cheeks; nothing changed.

'Maybe only when you know what to look for,' the other offered. 'But yes; I remember some things easily enough, but others…it seems like I can always remember important things though, so it's not really a bother.'

Miyako had to stifle her own laugh at that. 'So I was more important than your science partner?'

'Are you flirting with me?' Kouichi shot back, voice perfectly even.

Miyako sat down abruptly, a little harder than she had intended. 'You –' she began, before taking a deep breath and starting again. 'How can you say that in a conversational tone?'

'Hmm…I guess you are the first one to ever do that before.' He pulled his legs up away from the lip of the cliff, leaning back onto the ice-dusted grass.

'Do what before?'

'Well…' Kouichi was silent for a moment, trying to get his thoughts into some coherent form. 'Talk to me,' he said finally, 'without any sort of barrier in our way.'

'Oh?' Miyako blinked. 'Don't you do that with your friends?'

The boy shook his head. 'Not really; truth is, they knew each other a while before I came on scene.'

'And you don't really talk to many other people.' Miyako adjusted her seat, before grinning a little. 'Still, that doesn't explain why I stand out. Or am I just flattering myself – hah, I got you to blush again!'

And indeed, Kouichi was blushing at the teasing tone the other had snuck in. '_You're_ flirting with _me._'

'Well, you are cute,' Miyako sheepishly replied. 'But I try to make it a habit to only flirt with the _nice_ cute boys. And preferably ones that didn't not witness all my embarrassing moments in elementary school – oh look! The birds are out!' She laughed, easily slipping into the new conversational thread she had begun. 'Holsmon's there too!'

She stood up and waved, and the bird spun in the air to acknowledge her.

'Want to ride?'

'With these jackets?'

Miyako rolled her eyes. 'It's not that much colder than here,' she said in a matter-of-fact tone. 'Besides, we won't be high up for very long.' Her grin turned mischievous. 'Getting cold feet?'

'No,' Kouichi shook his head, his tone perfectly relaxed. So much so in fact that Miyako couldn't tell whether he was pulling her leg or stating the plain truth. 'I'm just hoping my brother's not up with the crack of dawn today.'

'Oh? Overprotective much?'

'Yeah…and I'm the older twin too.'

Miyako laughed again. 'Can't say I know any other twins to comment on that.'


End file.
